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tv   Way Too Early With Willie Geist  MSNBC  May 9, 2012 2:30am-3:00am PDT

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start thinking about pitching around the guy? "way too early" for this. good morning. i'm willie geist. this is way too early. the light hitting show that's going to honor josh hamilton by striking out four times this morning. i'm glad you're up with us watching on msnbc or listening on sirius radio. shoot me an e-mail or tweet me. what are you doing up this morning or text the word awake followed by your response to 622639. we'll read the best responses later on in the show. the next 30 minutes will be your cram session for this wednesday, may the 9th. a lot to tell you about including new detail on the cia seizure of that bomb headed on an airplane from yemen to the united states. turns out the man carrying it was not a terrorist at all. we'll explain. plus, i had this weird dream
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that vladimir putin was playing hockey one day after winning the election and silvio berlusconi was cheering him on. here at "30 rock" in new york city at 5:30 a.m. we begin with the end of an era. senator dick lugar will not be heading back to capital hill. it was not close. senator lugar first elected in 1976 lost by 22 points last night to state trish remember richard mourdock. outside spending groups poured millions of dollars into this race. senator lugar was criticized by conservatives for being too moderate and spending too much time outside of the state. he issued a statement condemning mr. mourdock's politics.
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his unrelenting partisan mind set is irreconcilable with my philosophy. he will encounter roadblocks in congress and he will have more republicans who will embrace the same. his prime mission is to cleanse the party. that's the statement from dick lugar after losing his seat. john carry of massachusetts called lugar's loss a tragedy saying in part it is a blow to the institution during a period when the institution itself has been strained. vice president joe biden tweeted this. the senate lost a brilliant strategic mind, a man with absolute integrity. he will be missed. the chair woman of the dnc, debbie wasserman schultz said the republican party is now indistinguishable from the tea party. the members were a bit concerned
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mourdock may not fare well with democrats. dick lugar has lost his senate seat after 36 years. voters were out in force in the overwhelmingly approved an e amendment that bans same-sex marriage in that state. at mendment passed with 61% of the vote making north carolina the 30th state now in the country to support a constitutional privilege saying marriage is between one 3457b and one woman. they say it could strain custody battles for couples who are married out of wedlock. white house press secretary said president obama's views of the issue are, quote, evolving. poses a unique political challenge for the president particularly now when you see the vote in north carolina, a state the president narrowly won
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over senator john mccain won in 2008 and needs this time around. despite last night's vote, new national polling suggested growing acceptance of same-sex marriage nationally. the latest gallup poll says same sex couples should be allowed to wed, that's 50%. 48% say they oppose same-sex marriage. that's down 20 points from the mid '90s. advocates still face an uphill battle. guy marriage opponents are 0-31 on voter referendum. the obama re-election team may want to cross off west virginia. federal prison inmates keith judd won 41% of the vote last night. he received more votes than the president in at least ten of the state's 55 counties. the 53-year-old felon is serving time in texas for mailing in threats to a state university
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and for extorsion. judd, who is currently serving out a 17 1/2 year sentence has ron for mayor in albuquerque and governor of new mexico. they say the vote represents a remarkable rebuke to president obama in that state. mitt romney, meanwhile, is facing new criticism from democrats over his position on the auto bailout. this follows comments made by the man himself during a campaign stot in cleveland. >> my own view was that the auto companies needed to go through bankruptcy before government help and frankly that's finally what the president did. he finally took them through bankruptcy. that was the right course. i argued for it from the very beginning. it was the uaw and the president that delayed the idea of bankruptcy. i pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy and finally when that was done and help was given, the companies got back on their feet. so i'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry has come back. >> there he is saying he'll take a lot of credit for the industry coming back.
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it's been a frequent topic on the campaign given the 2008 op ed in "the new york times" titled, let detroit go bankrupt. if general motors, ford, and chrysler get the bailout their chief executive asked for yesterday you can kiss the automotive industry away. it won't go overnight. its demise will be certain. he suggested a managed bankruptcy. united auto workers president bob king responded to romney's claim saying mitt romney has made a long list of absurd statements but this one might be at the top of that list. this one is hard to believe. the statement is tone deaf and blind to reality. that's from the president of the u.a.w. spokesman for the obama campaign calls his statements prepostero preposterous. the former presidential candidate sat down last night with jay leno. >> i think we just needed some
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time. you know, it was a rough and tumble campaign. i can't say that it would have been easy the next day to say, oh, yeah, let's go forward. it was tough. and so i wanted an opportunity to sort of think about it a little bit and the family to think about it because i don't do things on my own. this is a letter to my supporters who, for me, to say here's now why i think we should rally around mitt romney and support him. >> because at one point you said he would be the worst republican we could ever put against -- didn't you say that? >> i said that with respect to the issue of obama care. unfortunately with romney care, you know, he was the author of that and that was clearly a predecessor to obama care. it's going to be harder for him to make that case. certainly i would have been a better person to make the case. governor romney has said that he will work with the republican congress to repeal it. i said that in my e-mail. i hope he does. >> still rocking the sweater vest. today mitt romney campaigns in
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colorado while president obama meets with his advisors at the white house. overseas we now know why a would be suicide bomber was not taken into custody after the cia learned of an al qaeda plot to blow up an airplane. it turns out, that man a double agent working for sautd did i arabia. he had infiltrated the terror group and uncovered information about top leaders and their plans to attack the united states. u.s. officials say the intelligence agent not only turned over the bomb to the fbi but also provided key details about iffahad al quso. he's believed to have built the device along with several others in previous attempted attacks. one american tells us that the explosive would have brought down the plane if it had been successfully brought on board. janet napolitano says the
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country was never in danger. >> i want to say that the device was always under control and that no one in the united states was ever at risk because we did have control. i think if this plot had occurred prior to 9/11 in all likelihood it would have succeeded. in today's day with all the various layers we have, in all likelihood it would not have succeeded. >> despite the recent set backs to the terror groups, senior officials say al qaeda remains a threat particularly with its expanding reach over yemen as the country's government struggles to keep control there. still ahead on "way too early", we shift gears to sports. josh hamilton goes absolutely nuts in baltimore hitting not one, not two, not three, but four home runs of orioles pitching. where does that performance fit in the history of the big leagues?
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we'll show you. "way too early" will be back. the committee on the judiciary is authorized and directed to investigate fully and completely whether sufficient grounds exist for the house of representatives to exercise its constitutional power to impeach richard m. nixon, president of the united states of america. for three hours a week, i'm a coach.
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look at a beautiful live picture of the united states capital on a wednesday morning. let's turn to bill karins. rainy day once again? >> this may has been a little
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bit of a throw away? at least in the east. new england's probably seeing the worst of it through the first portion of may. we're watching light rain. cloudy conditions. providence getting some pretty good rain, heading for cape cod. long island's had some rain. there's another batch exiting philadelphia heading for new york city. if you're driving in any of those areas, you'll have light rain to deal with. you'll see a period of light rain along coastal new england. it will be cloudy and warm and we'll get another round later this afternoon starting around d.c. and moving northward. so after that we'll slowly be seeing improvement. other area of concern today, southeast from atlanta south wards through savannah, charleston, new orleans, jacksonville, orlando, chance of thunderstorms. notice the rest of the country, we're bought frul from kansas city to dallas. west coast looks fine. as we go throughout tomorrow, slow improvement up in new england. then we're still looking at a very nice mother's day forecast for many areas of the country.
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the only real concerns will be down along the gulf coast. >> we'll take the rain during the week if you give us the weekend. >> mom deserves it. we'll turn to some sports now. an historic night for josh hamilton. texas rangers visiting orie ols at camden yards. hamilton two run home run off jake arietta. hamilton just getting started. couple innings later hamilton again. goes deep the other way. another two-run home run. now we go ahead to the seventh. orioles try a different pitcher. same result. hamilton launched a zach phillip lefty on lefty. that's a bomb. straightaway dead center. his third home run of the night. one inning later hamilton enters the history books. come on. his fourth two-run home run of the evening. this one off darn o 'dea. hamilton, five for five. four home runs. eight rbis. he becomes only the 16th player in the history of baseball to
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hit four home runs in a game. they beat the orioles 10-3. he spoke about it. >> other than being in the world series, it's the highlight of my big league career, to hit four. it's just an awesome feeling to see how excited my teammates got. it reminds you of when you're in little league and a little kid and just the excitement and, you know, why we play the game. >> the last player to hit four home runs in a game, carlos delgado did it against tampa bay. he's leading the majors with a .406 average. 36 rbis. hamilton not the only player having a big night in baseball. a's and jay's. bottom of the ninth, bases juiced. that's a rocket. into the left field seats. that, my friends, is a walk off grand slam. a's win 7-3. they're four games behind texas in the a.l. west.
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national league, pirates. rod borahaha. a walk off two run home run. that's with two outs. the buck kcos beat them. nba playoffs, lakers with a chance to close out the series against the nuggets, up three games to one at the staples center. larry david in the building. lakers rallying from a 15 point deficit in the fourth with 1 minute to go. kobe hits the three cutting the lead to 2. he had 43. final seconds now lakers down 3. need a three to send it to o.t. kobe's jumper just off the mark. denver holds on for the win 1, 02-99. l.a. leads the zero vees 3-2. tomorrow the pacers eliminated the magic in five games, 105-87. this could be stan van gundy's last game on the bench. the hawks beat the celtics 87-86. boston leads 3-2.
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chicago grinding out a win against philly to stave off elimination. hockey, philadelphia flyers facing elimination themselves. down 3-2 against the devils. game was not for the feint of heart. early in the first period, anton volchenkof to brayden schenn. zachary nald zach rinaldo. flyers get on board with the first. the devils respond. salvador puts one off the post and in. it shows it was deflected by the flyers' defenseman. game tied at 1. few minutes later flyers' goalie bryzgalov mishandles the puck. david clarkson gets a cheap one. devils one 3-1 and they win the series. devils now get the winner of the caps/rangers in the eastern conference finals. could have a little jersey new york eastern conference final.
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coming up at the top of the hour, "morning joe", senator dick lugar absolutely blown out of his senate seat after 36 years. voters in north carolina by a wide margin vote to ban gay marriage. we'll sort through what it always means with our "morning joe" cooler. we'll watch vladimir putin watch a little hockey. silvio berlusconi in the house. "way too early" coming right back. ♪ hey sis,
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i told you earlier in the show the bizarre story of a convicted felon, guy by the name of keith judd last night giving president obama a run for his money in last night's west virginia democratic primary. the inmate won at least ten counties and 41% of the vote. the president won with 59%, i should say. a reminder that west virginia, anything can happen for this president. if you want to sound smart tell your friends then senator obama lost to hillary clinton in 2008 democratic primary by 41 percentage points. he went on to lose the state's general election vote to senator mccain by 13 points. let's huddle up around the water
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cooler to pay tribute to a man who changed children's literature. he suffered a stroke. he, of course, influenced kids of every generation. anybody born really after 1960. those illustrations, that imagination, and those stories. remembered for more than a dozen picture books that he wrote and illustrated himself. most famously, of course, one that every child has read in this country, "where the wild things are." one of the ten best children's storybook. he goes on a wild journey through a land of monsters. just months before his passing maurice sendak sat down for one of his final interviews with stephan colbert on the colbert report. >> i was lucky to have interviewed him earlier this year. tonight we'd like to show you a few more things that maurice had to say. >> thanks for sitting down with me today. this is a real honor. >> [ bleep ]. >> no, i'm [ bleep ].
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i mean it. what's your favorite of your own books? >> i really wish that you would ask that question. >> i'm glad i did then. >> i think the best is two books i've done. i can have two favorites. >> all right. >> one is called "outside were there." >> terrifying. >> it's my attempt to do a book -- >> but it's gob lynns that make ice babies and replace a child with it. >> yes. what can i say? what is a children's book? i don't have a clue. i'm famous for them. i write them. i illustrate them. i don't know what they are. i don't 2340e why they're for children. >> for those of you who don't know his work, go read his books. for those of you who don't read, they've got lots of pictures. maureen sendak died yesterday at the age of 83. perfect, perfect way for vladimir putin. we wouldn't have it any other way to celebrate his taking the presidency back.
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what else are you going to do except lace up the skates, get out there and play some hockey against a group of russian legends. rsvp to an inaugural ball, he's playing hockey. silvio berlusconi in the house. putin was on the amateur team. shocking he scored a goal. i'm surprised the goaltender let that one by. then scored another goal during a penalty shootout. here it is. putin skates in. get your pads down. scores on the back hander. goaltender, of course, fearing for his life let that one through the wickets. former italian prime minister, silvio berlusconi was in the building. as we leave here today, our very own mika brzezinski last night making her debut with david letterman. >> something i wanted to ask and if your father were here i would ask him, his first name,
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pronounce it. >> szbigniew. [ beep ]. >> that was good. she actually jumped. >> you see much more of mika's interview with letter man coming up on "morning joe." still ahead on "way too early", why are you awake. your tweets, texts and e-mails are next and "morning joe" just moments away.
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[ all ] shh! [ male announcer ] solutionism. the new optimism. we hekd you at the top of t show what were you doing up this early. >> willie, i'm always up this early but only because i'm too cheap for tivo. >> we accept dvr viewers. if you don't want to pay for the dvr, get up at 5:30. >> ann says why she's up on twitter, very simply, i have no idea